The present invention relates to a saucer target, more particularly to a new and improved target for a saucer-throwing game which engages players of age six and older.
Both saucers and throwing games have existed for many years. In recent times few families or other groups of persons of multiple ages go to the park, the beach, or to the lake cottage without a saucer. People of all ages enjoy throwing saucers. Although, the enjoyment stems from the recognition of the skill it takes to throw a saucer, to aim a saucer and the fun derived from watching a saucer sail through the air, there are very few saucer throwing games that have become popular or are currently being marketed.
There are and have been a multitude of throwing games which have been popularized. In fact throwing games in which the missiles thrown range from a ball to horse shoes, to rather sophisticated missiles such as lawn darts or the like. Many of these throwing items have been found to be unsuitable for children ages five to seven and others such as lawn darts have been found to be unsuitable for any range of ages. Therefore, it is highly desirable to provide a new and improved throwing game target. It is also highly desirable to provide a new and improved throwing game target safe for persons of all ages.
Saucers, having been available as throwing objects for a number of years have proven to be entirely safe for persons of all ages because of their relatively soft plastic construction and totally blunt and non-sharpened edges. Thus, it is highly desirable to provide a new and improved throwing game target for use with saucers. It is also highly desirable to provide a new and improved saucer target for a throwing game which will interest players of all ages from age six to older.
Saucer throwing games have been provided traditionally in two forms. The first form includes a target which is laid out on the ground or another generally horizontal playing field. The playing field is marked with various areas into which the saucer is thrown. The second form includes a target in the form of a goal which upstands from the ground and has one or more openings in a front surface thereof which allows a saucer to enter into the interior of the target and be captured. Examples of both of these kinds of targets are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,373,734. The target of the game disclosed in this patent has openings in the front which are designed to accept a saucer skillfully thrown at the goal. Other saucers thrown at the goal will be rejected by the goal and land on the playing field much like in the games of soccer and basketball.
Each of these targets have proven less than satisfactory. Some of these targets are specifically designed to exclude some of the saucers hitting the target. Successfully scoring utilizing these targets require skills not attainable by persons of young age who can learn to throw a saucer. Others capture any saucer hitting the target within its periphery, but cannot segregate those saucers as to throwing skill, and thus do not keep the interest of older and more skillful players. Thus it is highly desirable to provide a new and improved saucer target for a game which holds the interest of players of the game of all ages capable of throwing saucers. It is also highly desirable to provide a new and improved saucer target for a game having a short learning curve. It is also highly desirable to provide a new and improved saucer target for a game having a simplified scoring scheme based on the skill of the thrower. It is also highly desirable to provide a new and improved saucer target which collects all of the saucers hitting the target, and which segregates the same in accordance with throwing skill. It is also highly desirable to provide a new and improved saucer target which defines the saucer periphery, which absorbs the momentum of a flying saucer within the saucer periphery and decreases its velocity to zero, and which collects those saucers impacting the target in categories segregated for scoring in accordance by throwing skill.
Saucers and targets in order to be highly popular not only must be a kind which must hold the interest of persons of all ages, but must be of the type which can easily be set up and disassembled and stored when not in use, be relatively durable such that it will last for many enjoyable years, and be relatively inexpensive to manufacture and own. It is therefore highly desirable to provide a new and improved saucer target which holds the interest of persons playing the game with the target of all ages capable of throwing saucers. It is also highly desirable to provide a new and improved saucer target which can be easily set up for use and disassembled for storage. It is also highly desirable to provide a new and improved saucer target which can be made relatively durable for many years of use and which can be manufactured relatively inexpensively.
Finally, it is highly desirable to provide a new and improved saucer target having all of the features mentioned above.